Red and the Wolf: A Victorious Halloween Special
by John Ryan
Summary: Rex is alive á la Chucky and Jade is a diabolical sorceress (duh!). On this Halloween, Cat and the rest of the bunch must rescue the damsel in distress Tori, before the big bad wolf Jade can perform her sacrificial ritual at the moment of lunar eclipse. Features Cat-cuteness, JORI and some BADE.
1. Chapter i: Halloween, Party, and Rex

The school bell rings in its annoyingly high-pitch. Students bustle to and fro between periods. Robbie mopes from a classroom over to his locker with Rex on his hand. The irony of a sullen Robbie and a perky Rex is lost on him. He opens his locker and buries his face inside, along with a few books from his backpack. He groans obviously, as if he wants people to know he is miserable. He moans again, grabbing the attention of his "best friend."

"Why you glum, chum?" Rex quips in his usual too-white-to-be-ghetto accent (though, when you think about it, Rex looks like he could be the bi- or multi-ethnic version of his puppeteer). His edgy rhyming is not appreciated at the moment... and never is by Robbie's friends despite what he might think.

Robbie keeps his head buried as he mumbles out a response, "I didn't get invited to any Halloween parties this year." It is sad and yet it is not so surprising when he consistently brings a puppet with him on dates, and to any social event imaginable. You feel for him a pity without pity, because he should know better than to treat Rex like he is alive. And if he really thinks Rex is alive, then he should probably play cube-fist man until his mind is healed.

"You never get invited," Rex digs the knife in deeper as is his trademark. He follows it up with that smug, "heh... heh..." laugh of his.

Robbie pulls his head out of the locker, figuring he has hidden from the world long enough. He replies with a weak, "Do you have to remind me?"

"No, but it's funnier to," Rex replies. For as evil as Rex is, you have to give him credit for being honest. Sometimes his honesty leads to an angry human ripping off one of his body parts (usually Jade), but he's made of wood, so... you know. Robbie lets out a whining sigh as his only defense to Rex's rudeness.

Rex raise his little puppet hand and gives Robbie a sympathetic pat on the back. "There, there Robbie," he begins, pausing a moment in thought, not sure if he should say the next words. "If it means that much to you, you can be my plus one to a party uptown."

Robbie looks up into his eyes and asks surprisedly, "Really? You'd do that for me." It is the first time he can remember Rex not being a complete jerk in ages.

"Fo-shizzle," Rex ejects with a no-sweat hand gesture. "Plus, I need your arm since I'll be meeting some Northridge girls up in there. Heh... heh..." Just when you think he is being selfless there is a catch.

Robbie smiles and tells him with genuine gratitude, "Thanks, bud."

He closes his locker door and recoils in shock from a Halloween-Cat wearing a scary, bloody Rex mask shouting in the highest pitched voice, "BOO!"

In typical comedic fashion, Robbie screams like a little girl and drops Rex on his head. Cat stands there giggling sweetly like she always does and takes the mask off. "Tada..." she announces and takes the mask off. "I got you... hehe."

"What'd you do that for?" Robbie shouts in anger, and from still being a little scared. At least the poor guy didn't wet his pants. Not this Halloween.

"It's Halloween," Cat defends. "See, scary Rex" she says while putting the mask back on her face. "And then not-so scary Cat," as she takes it back off. Another moment of chuckles mixed with giggles.

"That's not funny!" he protests. "I hope... I hope" he continues struggling to find the right come back. "I hope you get so scared today you pee your pants."

Cat blinks her cute little eye lashes incredulously and questions him, "I thought it was only you who pee your pants?"

"Ugh," Robbie groans, grabs Rex off the floor and storms off, with melodramatic footsteps.

Cat calls after him twice using his name in that "oh, come on" tone. She makes a sad face, worrying she has hurt her friend's feelings. But she didn't do anything wrong, she concludes as she twiddles her thumbs. It's Halloween. You're supposed to scare people. And just like that she is back to her cheery demeanor, with a new smile on her face at the thought of candy later today.

Jade and Tori round the corner. Jade is drinking a cup of coffee that has almost become her fashion accessory. Oddly enough, Tori carries a sleeping back curled up under her arm.

"Hey, you guys," Cat greets with a small hand wave.

"Hi," Tori replies in her usual endearing manner. Yet Jade (already annoyed with her pleasantries) interjects a sharp, "Get to the point."

It usually takes effort to get Tori peeved, but Jade could always snap it out of her with her ganky attitude. Tori shoots an angry "Okay!" at the disagreeable girl standing beside her. She turns back towards Cat and informs her more gently, "We brought you this sleeping bag, because we remembered what happened last year when you were sleep deprived, and even more... Cat... than usual. So we want you to take a nap on your free period, before going out with us tonight."

Jade grabs the sleeping bag out of Tori's hands and lays it in front of Cat's locker. In a rather motherly tone she orders her, "Now, go to sleep like a good little girl."

"But I don't wanna sleep. I feel fine," she protests like the little child they are treating her as.

"I know you were too excited about Halloween that you couldn't sleep a wink last night," Jade tells her still without malice in her voice. "It's happened every year since I've know you. Now, me and Tori want to have a nice time to tonight without worry about you. So you need to nap."

"Go on," Jade motions her. But Cat stands her ground and protests, "No."

"CAT!" Jade screams in that shrill but powerful sound of hers.

Tori steps in front of Jade, and asks Cat, "Please... for me." Tori follows it up with a sappy pout and a friendly fist-bump to the chin.

Cat cannot help but giggle at the cuteness and concede with a "Kay-Kay." She lays down in the sleeping bag without the slightest bit of resistance. It's amazing how quickly the girl can change her attitude. Tori has wondered if she might be a little bipolar. Jade just wonders what her real personality is like underneath those head-drugs. She likes to imagine Cat as a psycho-killer, and potential partner in crime.

"I feel like we're forgetting something," Tori inquires of Jade. "What're we forgetting?"

Jade kneels down and places a binky in Cat's mouth. She is startled at first, but then begins sucking on it contently. Within moments, Cat drifts gently off to sleep. Jade smiles devilishly at Tori and says, "I put enough antihistamine in the pacifier to knock her out 'till we're done with Sikowtiz's class."

Tori replies half serious/half playfully, "You really are evil, you know that?"

Jade places her hands on her head forming the devil horns, the both of them unable to keep from laughing. She replies faux defensively, "Come on. I'm the bad cop and you're the good cop. It works. It's what it takes to take care that crazy ball of blurry red crazy that is Cat. I frighten her and lay down the law, then you comfort her and voila... a peacefully sleeping Cat. How else do we get the little one to bed on every sleep over?"

"You have a point there, but since when did we become Cat's mommies?" Tori asks earnestly.

"Uh," Jade plays with her hair. "Probably sometime after Sikowitz had us play husband and wife over a baby-binkied Cat." Jade pauses not sure if she wants to speak the next words. "And since, you know, after I stopped wanting you to die horribly." Her eyes fall to her shoes with that last sentence.

"Awww... you don't want me to die any more?" Tori mocks this time mimicking the fake Southern-actress accent Jade usually employs in her chiding.

"Well, not horribly anyway," Jade clarifies.

Tori squeals in offense but admits, "I guess it's an improvement." She stays a little pouty still.

"The pout doesn't work on me, darling," Jade says adamantly, crossing her arms. The look continues, and after tapping her foot a few times, Jade groans and signifies defeat with a "Fine." Tori waits for more. "I don't want you to die, even though it is Halloween and you're supposed to scare friends. There. Happy?"

Tori lets out a big grin in victory.

"Now stop being a dork and come on," Jade says grabbing Tori by the wrist. "We've gotta get to class and figure out our plan of attack for tonight, because I am not going in blind. Not with what happened last time."

"I say we take Cat tricker treating for about an hour," Tori answers resisting Jade's pull. "That should give her enough time to fill her pillowcase, without you needing to cheat by stealing little kids' candy... don't think I didn't see you..." Tori says pointing at her frenemy. Jade gapes speechless, but closes her lips in knowing Tori is right. "Then we head over to Natalia's party," Tori continues, "And go our separate ways, since we don't like each other much and are only doing this for Cat."

"Right," Jade says half-heartedly. "But if everybody else is totally jank and we happen to bump into each other again, that would still be cool. Because it's not that we like each other, it's just that we might hate everybody else more." Jade brings her eyes up to the other girl's gaze.

"Right," Tori says unable to fight back a smile.

Like yawing, Tori's smiles must be contagious, because before she knows it Jade is smirking back at the tan half-Latina. Tori finally lets Jade drag her off to the lunatic's acting class.

All this while Cat drifts off into her dreams.

/

Cat rubs her eyes and gets up out of the sleeping bag, yawing and stretching her arms wide in stereotypical, comedic fashion. She looks around and realizes she is in Robbie's bedroom, not the school any longer. Cat has to clear her eyes one more time and do a double-take wondering how she got here.

Robbie runs into the room and locks the door behind him. His face is sweaty and his eyes nervous. Cat questions him, "How did I get in your room?"

In a curt tone Robbie answers her, "Jade gave you Benadryl and you passed out cold. I carried you here to get you away from her." He finishes up by shooshing her with a flailing hand.

Cat gives him a dumbfounded stare and ekes out an, "oh... okay." She remains well behaved for a few moments, but the silence is killing her so she decides to ask him, "I'm all rested. You ready?"

"Shhh... not now," Robbie spits back at her.

Feeling hurt that he keeps dismissing her, Cat whines in her hurt voice, "Come on, you promised me we'd go play baby golf." Cat pouts, and sits down on the bed, crossing her arms like a petulant child.

Robbie places his hands on his head, clearly freaked out, and paces back and forth. He shouts, "I can't think about that right now, Cat. Something is really wrong."Robbies has always been a worrier, but this is taken to a whole new leve.

Cat has never seen him so truly scared in all the time she has known him. He sits down on the bed next to her and hangs his head. She pats him on the back and inquires, "What happened? I am not mad. Honest. You can tell me." Robbie and Cat have always had a special relationship; he being less selfish around her.

Whimpering as he speaks, Robbie says slowly, "Rex moved without me touching him." Cat gasps, covering her mouth with her palm. "He's never done that before. I know I always act like he's alive, but this is different." Robbie takes a beat before continuing, "And he said... he said... 'I'm gonna kill you.'"

Cat thinks it over in her mind, struggling with how to approach the issue. She might be naive but isn't stupid enough to believe Rex is truly alive. She plays along for Robbie's benefit. "I'm sure you were just eating too much Halloween Candy and got a bad tummy ache," she assures him. Cat nods and moves towards the door, intent on proving Rex is harmless.

"No, Cat don't!" Robbie screams at her, as if he were pleading for his life. He is even now on his knees begging her not to do it, but too much of wimp to restrain her himself.

Cat freezes with her hands on the doorknob and lock. She turns around and pronounces, "Okay!... Okay!... but I'm sure if we just go out there..."

Bang! A loud thump is heard against the door. Cat runs over to Robbie with a short and sharp yelp. Another thump. "What was that?," Cat whispers?

"It's him," Robbie says resignedly, as if it were the end of days and all hope had vanished from the face of the Earth.

Boom! An axe cracks through the door. Rex pops his head inside and in a perfect Jack Nicholson impression says, "Heh... heh... here's Rex."

Cat and Robbie each let out high pitched screams. They look at each other, grab the other tight, scream again and run towards the far side of the room, and away from Rex. The diabolical puppet keeps chopping away at the door with his axe like a madman. It can't be true! Rex can't be alive!

"Open the window," Robbie commands in a stronger voice now that the adrenaline has kicked in his system. Cat struggles with popping it open, not realizing it is still locked. "Hurry up!" Robbie badgers somewhat hypocritically since he is not helping her with it, keeping his eyes pealed on the impending doom working its way through the door. He has never been useful in a crisis. More the kind to curl up in the fetal position and play possum.

"I'm trying!" Cat protests back.

"It's locked!" he elucidates the puzzle for her.

"Oh," Cat says calmly and matter-of-factly. She gently unlocks the window and pulls it open. She jumps out gracefully, only being on the first-floor. Robbie follows clumsily wedging himself into the window frame, when the window comes crashing down on him.

"Help," he yells, "I'm stuck." Cat, who had already started running away thinking her fuzzy haired friend was right behind her, comes back and pulls it off of him, letting him push through and plop head first onto the ground. Cat grabs his hand, and helps him to his feet. She drags him away and the hurries down the hill.

Rex bursts inside Robbie's room, taking a few steps in to find the room empty and the window blowing cool air in his face. A scowl forms on his previously static face. He pulls a smartphone out of his pocket and texts someone mysterious. Hmmm... who could be the most diabolical of the Breakfast Bunch that he would be trying to reach?

He perches himself on the windowsill and stares out into the distance, catching a glimpse of red hair at the bottom of the valley. "You can run, but you can't hide," he declares ominously, beating his palm while his eyes glow red.


	2. Chapter ii: Sikowitz's Revelation

Cat and Robbie run all the way screaming to Hollywood Arts, hoping to find some of their friends there for help. Unfortunately, they left their cell phones back at the house, not thinking to grab them as they were fleeing for their lives. They burst through the front doors flailing their arms like whirling dervishes.

Once safely inside, they stop for a moment to catch their breath. Robbie is severely out of shape, as evidenced by his hacking and wheezing. Using her head for once, Cat grabs a conveniently positioned broom lying on the ground and locks the double doors by shoving it through the handles.

Robbie looks at Cat in amazement, unsure of how she learned how to do such a thing. It is a very rare, and un-Cat-like moment. Like seeing a black swan. She simply replies, "I saw it once in a movie." Well, that explains it then. "It was on the _Three Little Pigs..._ the piglet brothers were running from the Big Bad Wolf." And we're back to ditzy Cat.

"We have to find Sikowitz!," Cat shouts too close to Robbie's face, tapping him on the shoulders.

"Yeah, but could you not say that into my ear next time," he comments dryly. "And why Sikowitz? He has never been the most responsible adult." Robbie takes off his glasses and runs his hands through his hair, trying to smooth it down after the wind has blown it all messy—even more messy than usual.

"Cause, he's the craziest guy we know and this is the craziest situation we know," Cat argues with fuzzy, heuristic logic.

Robbie puts his glasses back on his face, and answers her, "I can't argue with that." He follows up with a "why-not" shrug.

The two of them finally take the time to examine their surroundings and discover that there are other students standing around by their lockers. The only problem is that they are not moving. In fact, they are all perfectly still with slightly open mouths and limp arms.

Cat walks over to one of them and waves her hands in front of his face. He does not blink, flinch or move a muscle. His eyes are solid white. Their eyes are all solid white. She lefts out a soft yelp and jumps back to Robbie's side.

In an ominous tone, Robbie inquires of the red-head, "What's wrong with all of them?"

She simply responds, "It's like they all just... stopped." Cat bites her nails painted pick. It has become a recent habit of hers everyone has tried to put a stop to. Not only does she look like a chipmunk doing it, she does not know when to stop and ends up chewing them down to the nub.

"Quit it," Robbie commands her, and swats her hand from her teeth.

"Sorry," she whispers back, never like her to use hushed tones when she doesn't absolutely have to.

"Let's go find Sikowitz," he whispers back, afraid he will awaken the army of zombies ready to pounce all around them. Jade forced him to watch _Dawn of the Dead _after losing a bet, and he was frightened enough from seeing it on a two-dimensional screen. He did not need to live the 3-D experience.

The dynamic duo approach the corner, past Tori's locker. As soon they round the bend, a swarm of bats fly overhead. They duck to the ground, narrowly avoiding a face full of flying rat. Once they have gone past, Cat gets up and dusts herself off. She quips, "When did we get so many bats in the school?"

A little more cautiously and reserved, Robbie stands up and holds onto Cat as they walk further down the hall. The lights flicker in-and-out of place, and lightening mysterious crackles on the ceiling. "And lightening?" Cat gulps.

They look at each other and take off down the hall, sprinting as fast as they possible can, not wishing to be electrocuted today.

/

Cat and Robbie quickly close the door behind them as they skid into Sikowitz's classroom. They could not find him in his office, so they thought this would be the next best place to look for the bald hippie.

The room is pitch dark, with the lightening outside only periodically illuminating the way forward.

"Sikowitz?" Robbie calls out in a hushed, but vocative tone.

They slowly approach the stage. A lightening bolt reveals the outline of Sikowitz sitting on the stage. His hand is on his head in a Thinker-esque pose.

"Teacher?" our darling red-head coos, inching ever closer to the stage.

They see Sikowitz's body rocking back and forth, like a madman in a mental-ward. Slowly, he whispers, "The horror... oh the horror..." echoing _Heart of Darkness_. He follows it up with a silly, Newman-esque "Oh, the humanity! Ah...ha...ha." He doesn't even care that he is blending to divers pop-culture references at this point.

The lights flick on seemingly by themselves. Cat lets out a short shriek, but is contended that she can see two feet in front of her face again. Sikowitz holds up a remote control in his hand for Cat's benefit. She merely says, "Oh..." realizing that it wasn't magic.

"We have a problem, Sikowitz," Robbie wastes no time getting to the issue, not like him to be so blunt and and direct.

"It's Rex. He came at us with an axe!" Cat interjects with much plosive force. Her face is frazzled, and not cheerful any longer.

Sikowitz rises to his feet, and stops the schizophrenic behavior. He places a hand on Robbie's face. What is with all the weird touching? He has no concept of personal boundaries. Sometimes they think he does it just to purposefully mess with their boundaries and comfort zones. "I know," he counsels the Jewish boy, "I know."

"How do you..." Cat questions awfully confused from everything that has happened in the last half-hour. It is getting all too much for her brain to handle. She needs some sugary sweets to calm her down and refocus her attention.

"The voices inside my head child," and Sikowitz follows up with repetition for emphasis, "The voices in my head, child." He clutches his skull in violent seizure and cries, "And they won't stop. This is way worse than tinnitus. I hear her speaking to me." He collapses himself to his knees and whines.

Cat kneels compassionately beside him. She places her hand gently on his shoulder, calming his pain with her touch. She asks him what both her and Robbie are dying to know, "Who do you hear, teacher?"

Sikowitz turns dramatically to face Cat. "Jade..." he reverberates with great care. "I hear her voice whispering to me. And I cannot make it go away." He pauses and cries out suddenly, "Tori!" Sikowitz grabs Cat's shirt and curls it up around his fist, drawing her closer. "She's going after Tori. You have to stop her. She is pure evil. The prince of darkness. If we don't stop her, dear children, I don't know what will happen." After announcing this dire warning, his eyes gloss over into a meditative trance, becoming still as a statue, and taking up the Buddha position, like none of them were ever there. Whatever it takes to defend himself from the voices, they guess.

Cat shakes her acting teacher, but to no avail. She turns back to her friend, jumps to her feet and declares, "Come on, Robbie. You heard him. We have to go rescue Tori."

"We can't just leave Sikowitz like this," Robbie justifies, his lower-lip quivering. He takes a few steps back.

Sikowitz commands them again, "Go! Tori is in grave danger... hurry," with eyes still shut and all else perfectly composite.

Cat pulls at Robbie's hand, but he resists with all his might and tugs himself free. "No!" he shouts angrily at Cat. "I'm scared and I'm not going. We don't know what's out there. Rex could be waiting in the parking lot to chop us to pieces. For all we know Jade already has Tori, and there is nothing we can do. We're not strong enough to make a difference."

The red-head cannot believe the words that are coming out of his mouth. She thought he was better than this. He might not have been classically brave, but when the chips are down, she imagined she could always count on him to do the right thing. "I'm scared too," she informs him, "But Tori is our friend. We can't let anything happen to her." She stares at Robbie trying to make him feel guilty. "She'd come looking for you. When we were stuck in the giant cupcake, she was the one who went outside to save all of us."

Robbie drops his head in shame and meekly replies, "Remember that dream you had about the cannibal children?" He shrugs. "I just don't have it in me." Refusing to look up, he takes a seat on the hard wooden chair next to Sikowitz.

"Fine," Cat spits out. "Super-brave Cat will just have to handle this alone, since the so-called man is too much of a scaredy-cat to chaperon the little girl back in the stormy weather." Throughout all her anger, Cat cannot but help but giggle. She repeated, "Scared-y _Cat_... hehe..."

Her face returns to a scowl and she storms off, violently slamming the door behind her.


	3. Chapter iii: Capturing of the Damsel

Author's Note: I apologize for the delay in updating. I hoped to finish this story by Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy disabled my ability to work for a whole week. Thank you all for the kind reviews and followings.

* * *

Tori pulls out her PearPhone as she plops down on her bedroom chair and updates her status on the _SLAP: "I feel a cold chill in the house, even though I have the heat turned up. Mood: Eerie." The tiny emoticon shifts its eyes in terror. _

The doorbell rings in a slower than average melody. Shaking it off as imagination or coincidence, Tori shouts, "I'm coming." She gets to her feet and rushes down the stairs dressed in her Little Red Riding Hood costume, which makes her look like an out-of-place latina/fraulein. She opens the door recoiling from its cold touch.

Jade is on the other side, leaning forward with both hands resting on the doorposts. She sports a tight metallic-silver dress and fishnet stockings with nails painted black. A mischievous grin is worn on her visage.

"Hi, Jade," Tori squeeks confusedly. She was not expecting the goth girl to show up, because well, Jade hates her and Tori tries to spend as much time away from her as she can. Though, for some reason she cannot quite explain, she has a desire to be close to the deathly pale white girl.

"Heyyy, Tori," Jade drags out in a long sly tone. Her eyes do not reveal her full intentions.

"What's up?" Tori questions rather generically.

"Well, first are you ever going to invite me in?" Jade reprimands her frenemy, but without any malice in her words. She rubs her arms and continues, "It is freezing out here."

Tori gestures for her to enter. Jade walks through the door, taking every step purposefully like a cat on the prowl. Trying not to sound boorish, the tan girl mentions, "I was just getting ready to head out."

Jade spins on her heels and looks Tori up and down from head to toe. A new devilish smirk forms on her lips. "What!" Tori spurts with arms thrown up in confusion.

Not phased by the sudden outburst, Jade calmly asks rather sarcastically, "Little Red Riding Hood? Really? This is just too good a coincidence."

Tori is unsure what Jade meant by that last sentence but defends rather scrappily, "What? It's a classic, and it works for me." The latina takes up a dominating posture and concludes, "I do not care what you think of it. I don't need your approval. I look really hot in this, no matter what you say." She finished with folding her arms in defiance.

Jade tilts her head, studying the other girl's expressions. She opens her lips, "I never said it didn't make you look beautiful." Jade follows with a eerie yet sexy wolf's howl.

Tori clearly feels awkward, so she walks over to the kitchen table and pours Jade a glass of punch. She comes back over and hands Jade the orange liquid. "Here," she says less flustered, "Have some of my special Halloween punch."

"Isn't punch supposed to be pinkish," the other girl reminds holding the glass up for examination. She swirls it around in her cup and takes a sip. "This is just Gatorade," she remarks in surprise.

"Shhh..." Tori says placing a finger over her own mouth.

Jade smiles and replies, "You're secret is safe with me. I love..." and she drags out the last three syllables, "Ga-Tor-Ade."

Jade walks past Tori and she notices a new tattoo on the spooky girl's left arm. Tori grabs her forearm and twist her to get a better look. "When did you get a new tattoo?" she exclaims in her outside voice.

With her arm still held captive, Jade runs a finger over the tattoo. "I got it yesterday. It's the black sun. It symbolizes another force against all others－the antithesis of everything else." Whatever it is, it looks creepy and evil Tori reckons. Yet, Tori finds herself hypnotically staring into it and lets go of the pale girl's arm. Finally she breaks her fixation and asks rather straightforwardly, "So, why are you here, West?"

Jade smiles like the Cheshire Cat and raises her head to look into Tori's round face, "To invite you to a special party I'm throwing at Hollywood Arts tonight."

She's being nice? Jade is never nice. What's going on here? "Oh..." Tori croaks out, retreating a little. "That's unexpectedly nice of you, Jade. But I kind of already have plans with some other friends from my old school and I promised them I'd go to this other party." Tori feels a little bad, but not enough to cancel her plans for a last minute invite, especially considering it is an invitation from her long-time nemesis.

"That kind of hurts Tori," Jade says in a sing-song voice. It is difficult to detect if she is mad, completely indifferent or relieved. "The first time I try to be nice..." She shakes her head as if she is very disappointed in a child, but for some reason the face does not match the words.

Tori's heart sinks in her chest. She never wanted to hurt Jade. It's just that she really didn't envision spending her Halloween with somebody who constants takes shots at her. Not that she doesn't like Jade. It's just that... uh... it's complicated. She arrives at a compromise, "I'm sorry," she declares. "Maybe I can swing by later, after the party. Make it up to you?" She is hopeful Jade will take it.

Jade fakes a frowny face. "Okay. All right," she says the words not very convincingly but with a nod of her head. "I'm gonna head off to get my costume ready. There so much preparation." She walks over to the edge of the couch, ready to leave.

What could that possibly be, Tori wonders. She decides to ask, the curiosity now killing her. "You mean this isn't your costume? What're you going as then?"

"Oh, it's a surprise darling," Jade returns. She raises her eyebrows twice signalling intrigue. Jade takes a step further to leave, but stops and turns around. "But before I go," she asks taking out a cloth from her pocket and holding it out in front of her... "My dad gave this to me as a Halloween present but I cannot figure out what it is. It has this weird odor. What do you think it smells like?"

"Why would you want to know what it smells like?" Tori retorts but leans in anyway and cautiously begins to sniff the rag. Jade presses it hard against Tori's nose causing her to choke. "Jade!," she cries. "Ugh... it smells like chloroform."

Tori's eyes go wide as she realizes what just happened. She tries to hold her head up, but she struggles like a sleepy puppy. Finally, she closes her eyes giving into the inevitable and collapses towards the floor. Jade catches the latina with her boot, just before she hits the ground, gliding her gently down. She kneels down and pets Tori's head.

"Sleep tight Vega," the goth says ominously as she grins devilishly.

/

_SLAP POST: That gank Jade drugged me. Wait, how am I texting while I'm unconscious. Mood: OD'd. Accompanied with a sickly, drooling smiley. _

Beck and André are in Tori's living room, pacing back and forth, wearing anxious and worried expressions on their faces. Beck runs his fingers through his hair as a nervous habit, and André keeps groaning periodically.

Cat runs through the half-opened front door screaming, "Tori! Tori! Tori!." She scans the room with her eyes, finding only her two favorite boy friends. It takes her a few moments to realize that she was too late. She mentally slaps herself for not running fast enough, but she was out of breath!

"She's not here," Beck informs her grimly. His voice also runs out of breath, but this from emotional weariness. He's not quite sure how he feels about Tori, but he knows that at the least, he loves her as a friend, and cannot deal with anything bad happening to her.

"Jade got here right before us," André motions to the dead plants around him. "She's gone," he says and throws up his hands in defeat.

"Maybe Tori just forgot to water," Cat responds, offering a highly unlikely but still possible scenario.

Beck shakes his head. He holds up his smartphone in front of Cat's face so she can see the images. Cat sees a picture of Jade holding an unconscious Tori with her hands around the poor girl's neck in a chokehold—the princess of darkness smiling. Cat scrolls to the next pic: Jade putting pink lipstick on Tori; next: Jade holds Tori's hand on her cheek and makes her mouth gasp open with the other hand; next: Tori slumped in the chair, with Jade behind her, holding her fingers up to make horns on her head.

"Oh..." is all the short redhead can utter.

"I don't know what we're gonna do guys," André interjects. Beck takes a seat on the coach and André moves over to Cat. "This is some alien territory up in here."

As if it were the only sensible option Beck states, "We have to stop her." He looks up at his two friends with a deathly serious stare.

"And what do we do about the puppet," Cat adds, twirling locks of her bright hair between her small fingers in a paltry attempt to sooth her nerves.

Huh?" André asks in a Scooby-esque accent.

Cat's eyes go big and wide in earnest and she informs them, "Rex, he's evil. He came at me and Robbie with an axe." Cat swings her arms mimicking an axe in her hands.

"Awww... man," André whines. "Chuckie really freaked me out when I was a kid." He glances off into the distance recalling the past in his own head, and says so seriously, "I had to sleep with the lights on for six months... and I was eleven!" André sits down on the couch next to Beck, who pats him on the back reassuringly.

Beck shakes his head and remarks, "I always knew Jade was dark, but this beyond what I thought she was capable of. I never thought she would actually intend to hurt Tori like this" He holds his head in his hands.

Cat bends down and places a comforting palm on Beck's knee. "Awe, Beck. She's still our friend somewhere in there. She's just going through a bad phase right now." Cat's eyes are sincere and hopeful for her scary friend, who she does truly love like a big sister.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Beck says. He clasps Cat's hand and pushes himself up on his knees. "Still, I can't let her do anything bad to Tori."

"We don't even know where she is," André reminds them. He hates to be the debbie-downer, but he knows somebody has to keep them grounded in the cold, hard reality of the situation.

Cat raises her hand like she is answering a teacher's question and squeals, "I do."

André and Beck look at Cat surprised she is being so helpful and competent. "We saw everyone zombie-fied at school like..." Cat stands up straight and lets her arms hang loose, she defocuses her gaze like she sees nothing around her. "But with vanilla eyes," she adds, swooshing her hand past her face.

"Jade must be taking Tori to Hollywood Arts," André confirms, not that Cat didn't already say as much. He just liked playing Captain Obvious.

"Yeah... yeah..." Cat says encouragingly. She smiles a little, proud of herself. "I'm useful."

Beck taps her on the shoulder, "You did good Munchkin."

Cat giggles.

Beck and André grab their jackets from the end table and walk towards the door. Beck realizes Cat has no coat, and wraps his around her, earning him an unspoken thank you. Chivalry never died according to Beck who is truly a stand-up guy when you think about it.

André claps his hands loudly. "All right," he shouts enthusiastically. "Let's go melt the Wicked Witch."


	4. Chapter iv: Snow White

Inside Jade's new fortress at Hollywood Arts, Tori lays asleep (or unconscious, rather?) on a fluffy bed set positioned upon the pitch-black stage set. The pink bedspread adds some color to the otherwise bleak color scheme. She is still wearing her bright red Little Red Riding Costume.

Rex stands on a chair set next to the bed, and a not-quite-right Robbie stands by his side. The poor Jewish boy's eyes are cloudy and whitish. The school was no refuge from Jade. He was wrong. Hollywood Arts is the epicenter of this drama, and Robbie fell right into her dark servitude.

Robbie stares over the sleeping girl, examining her every feature. "She is beautiful when she sleeps, isn't she?" he asks the puppet the rhetorical question. Robbie has always been a little icky. It is merely that he looks very normal in relation to Sinjin, so few notice.

Rex looks over at his former owner (no need for a puppeteer when you can move yourself) with incredulity. "Even when you're under a spell," he remarks, "you're a creepy nerd." When Rex is weirded out with your perving, you know you have gone too far.

In a servile, groveling tone, Robbie apologizes, "Sorry, master". He follows up with a small bow of respect.

The diabolical puppet simply smirks at the new hierarchy of power. "It's about time I started pulling your strings," he states smugly.

The doors fly open without anyone touching them, grabbing the attention of the two boys. Jade walks through, dressed in a black devil costume with red flares and a short skirt but sans devil horns. She tosses her shawl onto one of the chairs in the audience.

Jade walks up the stage, every step thumbing to the weight of her combat boots. "We're almost ready," Jade declares. "The eclipse is nigh."

Rex cannot help but snicker at Jade's choice of vocabulary. "Heh... heh..." he says, "'nigh'... didn't realize we stepped back into the 19th century." The combination of wit and mouth never takes a rest in Rex.

"Shut it, puppet!" Jade commands with her usual mean-voice. Rex grits his teeth. "The Scooby Gang should be here soon as well," Jade continues. "Those goodie-goodies will not leave our poor, helpless Vega in my grasp for very long. You can be sure of that." Rex nods in agreement.

Tori moans and begins to stir. Jade immediately snaps her gaze towards the sleeping latina. "Leave us," she orders again with a stern glare of the eyes towards Rex and Robbie.

Robbie responds with a cowardly, "Yes ma'am." Not satisfied it is enough to protect him from the wrath of Jade he babbles on further, "I mean your highness... ugh... I mean your eminence."

"Just go," Jade says in a tired tone, shooing him away with a hand wave. He bows his head in disgrace and begins walking towards the exit.

Rex jumps off the chair following his orders like a good little demonic soldier in the service of Satan. Yet, he is not willing to go without a barb. Offended with the way he is being treated, Rex sarcastically comments, "A simple please would be nice."

Jade shoots him a piercing death glare, so he turns around and, with Robbie, proceeds to exit the theater.

The goth girl moves over to the opposite side of the bed where Tori lays. She sits down on the free space beside her frenemy and places a hand on the other girl's stomach. With quiet words she says to the sleeping singer, "Time to wake up, Snow White." Jade leans over Tori and gives her a slow kiss. The sound of Jade's lips smacking are heard as she pulls back to a seated position.

Tori's eyes pop open. Jade climbs over Tori again and in one swift and fluid motion handcuffs the poor damsel to the headboard. "Well, that was faster than I expected," Jade remarks.

"Hey!" Tori shouts. She springs up, but is caught on the newly attached chains. The metal grates against the hard metal headboard. "What's going on? Let me go!"

"We've talked about using your outside voice inside before Vega," Jade says dryly. It is as if this kidnapping is nothing out of the ordinary at all. Just another day of the West/Vega dynamic.

Tori does not take it so calmly, however. She begins to panic stretching at the handcuffs and testing them to their limits. "How did I get here?" she screams, ignoring Jade's request altogether. "Why am I handcuffed? What're you doing to me?"

Jade slaps Tori across the face. What? She heard that you're supposed to slap a hysterical person across the face to grab their attention and bring them back to reality. Plus, she's evil you know.

The poor tanned girl freezes instantly, unsure of how to process what just happened. "Owwww!" Tori finally lets out. Her eyes tremble in fear and hurt. She is not sure what the goth has in mind for her.

"Listen to me," Jade begins. She holds two fingers to Tori's eyes, and then brings them back to her own, to focus the other's attention. "You've got to zip it, clip it, lock it and put it in your pocket." Jade climbs on top of Tori, straddling her legs. "You've been chosen for a special purpose, Vega. You're going to help me usher in a new age of darkness."

"How?" the frightened Tori inquires.

With a smirk and confident eyes, Jade simply answers, "Oh, you'll see." Jade brandish a dagger, she pulled from under the covers, and grins from cheek to cheek in her Cheshire Cat imitation.

Tori pulls herself as far back against the headboard as she can, but to no avail, since Jade is already on top of her. She shudders and whimpers. She cries, "Why me?"

"I need a good girl," Jade replies with her playful tone implying innuendo. "And I think I'm safe in assuming you're a good girl." She brushes her finger's over Tori's lips with the last three words.

"You'r... you're gonna sacrifice me?" Tori frowns.

Jade shrugs and answers, "Pretty much... you could put it like that."

Tori stars to whine and cry in excessive comedic fashion. Jade's eyes go wide. She was totally unprepared for this. Tori is usually hard and tough. She is the only person who is always willing to stand up to the pale girl and call her out upon when she is being a total gank. Jade respected this about her. "What're you doing," Jade rolls off her tongue like venom. "Stop it!"

Jade gets off of Tori, annoyed by this pathetic display of emotion. "Seriously stop it," she commands. Yet, she could never control Tori like she could others. "I hate it when people cry," Jade informs her, "especially prissy girls, who refuse to act like big girls."

Tori continues to bawl. Jade rolls her eyes, but she cannot deny it is getting to her. "Ugh..." she shouts. "There, there, it's okay," Jade comforts as she clumsily pats the other girl's soft head. But it doesn't help. She has never been good at comfort. She causes crying and doesn't know how to stop it, because she rarely cares to.

"Fine, it doesn't bother me," she bursts. Jade crosses her arms and turns away. Her face is visibly strained as she continues to listen to the crying, however. Jade taps her foot repeatedly and impatiently. "Fine!" she shouts again, this time not in defiance but in defeat.

She swings back around towards Tori and climbs back on top of her. Jade covers Tori's mouth with her palm, so she cannot scream. She offers a negotiation, "If I take these handcuffs off, will you stop your crying?"

A frightened Tori nods eagerly.

Jade pulls back, snaps her fingers and the handcuffs magically pop off. She just gives Tori a "yeah, I'm that awesome" sort of look.

"How'd you?" Tori stutters, utterly blown away.

"You'll find I'm full of surprises tonight Vega," Jade says like a total bad-girl, confidence brimming off her face from that totally cool display of her dark powers.

"What kind of answer is that?" Tori asks as she rubs her lips trying to get the Jade off her face. "And why are your palms so sweaty?" She brings her hands in front of her face. Tori recognizes black lipstick smeared on her fingers. "And while we're at it, why do I have black lipstick all over my mouth?" It confuses her for a moment until she looks up and notices the black lipstick Jade is wearing.

Jade returns a look of incredulity, "Oh come on Vega. Don't tell me you haven't thought about it. You're just mad you were half-asleep for it."

Tori folds her arms, peeved at the goth.


End file.
